The confidential memo also lends credence to the possibility that the first-term district attorney lacked even the administrative authority to give his top deputies the extra time off to make up for a 5 percent bonus they lost as part of countywide cutbacks.

The memo comes in response to a request by Supervisor Joe Simitian asking the County Counsel’s Office about whether Rosen’s actions were permissible. It appears to validate the county’s decision last week to ask the state Attorney General’s Office to look into whether Rosen broke any laws. It also undermines Rosen’s initial contention — which he has since withdrawn — that the County Counsel’s Office had approved his maneuver.

Rosen declined to comment on the memo. But he has previously said he did nothing wrong and has described the supervising attorneys, including the homicide chief and head of the gang unit, as extremely hardworking, committed prosecutors who are on call 24 hours a day and are essential to the office’s operation and to public safety. He and the Government Attorneys Association are locked in an intense power struggle, partly driven by Rosen’s decisions to discipline attorneys for a wide variety of alleged transgressions.

Also Thursday, four unions submitted letters to county officials asking to discuss their concerns about Rosen’s unilateral decision to lessen the burden of the negotiated cut on about 15 supervising attorneys.

The county’s top administrator, Jeff Smith, has said the benefit is worth about $280,000.

Among the unions seeking to discuss the issue are the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, the Correctional Peace Officers Association, the Registered Nurses Professional Association and the Santa Clara & San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council.

Giving extra time off in the form of administrative leave is controversial because it allows the supervising attorneys — who are among the office’s highest-paid lawyers, at salaries of about $195,000 each — to preserve vacation time they might otherwise have used and eventually sell it back to the county later for cash. The vacation payouts would put back in their pockets about the same amount of money they lost in the pay cut.

The Building & Construction Trades Council specifically noted that the contracts between the county and its many bargaining units include what’s known as a “me-too” provision. If any unit does not meet its prorated share of concessions, then the other roughly 30 unions’ share and cost to its members will be lowered by a proportional amount — potentially a huge liability to the county.

Smith capped the amount of leave time Rosen could give last week. The bonuses for the attorneys will be restored June 24 under the Government Attorneys Association.

Tracey Kaplan is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group based at The Mercury News. She covers courts and has been in love with reporting for the past 30 years, including eight at the Los Angeles Times where she was part of a group that won a breaking news Pulitzer for coverage of the 1994 Northridge quake. Recently, she and two fellow reporters won first place for enterprise reporting from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Talking to people -- including activists, public defenders, prosecutors, academics and inmates -- about the strengths and troubling weaknesses of the criminal justice system fascinates her, as does swimming laps as often as she can.

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